'Sting' developer Stern distrusted by many local officials

Few of his many proposals went forward

Apr. 11, 2013

Moses Stern

Written by

and Steve Lieberman

Moses “Mark” Stern, the 40-year-old Monsey investor at the center of the corruption probe that led to the arrests of Spring Valley’s mayor and other local officials, has a long history of pitching development proposals that went nowhere but persuaded banks to lend large sums.

Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence said he twice met with Stern, once over Stern’s plan to build a large house for his family next door to his mansion — a plan that never happened but led to a Stern associate’s guilty plea to $1.75 million in fraudulent mortgages, as first reported by The Journal News — and again regarding a possible catering hall on town land.

St. Lawrence said Stern told him he had just moved from Los Angeles and had dealings with Russell Simmons, the impresario of Def Jam and Phat Farm fame. St. Lawrence was unimpressed with the financier, whom he described as boastful and aggressive.

“He came in here like a bulldog talking this and that,” St. Lawrence said. “I think the guy is a Bernie Madoff type. He’s a real con man.”

When he talked about the catering hall in December, Stern brought Joseph Desmaret, the Spring Valley deputy mayor and town employee in the assessor’s office; boasted that he was partnering with Spring Valley on a catering hall and spoke of a similar deal in Ramapo, saying the Orthodox Jewish community needed more such halls, St. Lawrence said.

Desmaret also was arrested in the corruption case, which centered on a catering hall and community center plan in Spring Valley concocted by the feds to create bribe opportunities that snared Desmaret and Mayor Noramie Jasmin. Desmaret and Jasmin face mail-fraud charges.

Court papers cite similar deals in Pomona, Sloatsburg and Nyack, where several shell companies, some controlled by Stern, proposed a commercial/residential development on Midland Avenue.

Stern has been unsuccessfully sought for comment by the media since the FBI sting. He could not be reached Wednesday. Federal authorities describe him as a “cooperating witness” in the criminal complaint filed in federal court after the sting. Rockland prosecutors have said Stern himself is in trouble for mortgage fraud and cooperated in the corruption sting in hopes of a more lenient sentence.

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“There was an air of mystery about it,” said Chris Blair, a former Planning Board chairman in Nyack, of the development that ended up being shuffled among shell corporations, some controlled by Stern, getting mortgages that were later foreclosed.

Architects appeared before the Planning Board but would not say who owned the property.

“Normally somebody will come forward and say, ‘This is my property and this is what I’m planning to do,’ ” Blair said. “It was continually changing hands, and we never knew who the owner was.”

Another local businessman, Howard Hellman, stepped in and bought one of the mortgages, hoping to foreclose and develop the land himself, but was never able to do it because Stern paid off the mortgage. Hellman said he met Stern once , and called him occasionally to see if he would sell, but other than that did not know Stern.

The Midland Avenue property became the subject of a court case in 2010, when chain pharmacist Duane Reade sued Stern and another investor, Philip Neuman, saying the two had conned the drugstore into signing a lease on a property that was never built, then used the lease to get $1.5 million in mortgages on top of a $950,000 mortgage from the original owner. In court papers, Stern blamed Neuman for the “nefarious” scheme and claimed he innocently bought the land from Neuman after the fraudulent mortgages.

Back in Spring Valley, Trustee Demeza Delhomme said he had lunch with Desmaret at the Airmont Diner when a man dressed in Hasidic Jewish religious clothing joined them and started talking about the development in the village. Delhomme said Desmaret and the man set him up for this surprise meeting.

“I had never seen that guy’s face before,” Delhomme said. “I told them I don’t have anything to say. I told him he should come before the board.”

Allan Thompson, the village mayor from 1993 to 2001, said Stern wanted to build in the village about the time plans for the urban renewal project got going. Thompson said he didn’t trust Stern or believe he was interested in the betterment of the village. He said Stern was told to make a proposal in writing, not over the telephone.

“I was not interested in him,” Thompson said. “I had heard he was, yes, a ‘wheeler-dealer.’ I asked all potential developers if they were willing to do a development to benefit the village, not just themselves.”